THE EVOLVING NATURE OF CATEGORY LEADERSHIP IN RETAIL

In the past, when I would go country to country, clients would complain when I would show examples from outside of their region or country. The might say, ‘our country is different’, says Ray Gaul, VP of research and analytics: market insights at Kantar Consulting. He says that recently, that story has changed.
When I show examples of in-store best practices, I get the question ‘is that brand doing all the right things in highly developed e-commerce markets?’

The implication is that to be a ‘best practice’ category leader in 2018, you need to be doing three things right:

‘SA IS BEING RECALIBRATED’

Ramaphosa made the remarks during his address to a breakfast meeting with SA business leaders on Sunday in the Chinese capital city of Beijing‚ during a state visit hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Xi was in SA in June on a similar visit ahead of the recent Brazil‚ Russia‚ India‚ China and SA (Brics) summit.

Ramaphosa said ahead of the two-day Forum on China-Africa Co-operation summit that the government needed to provide not just “policy certainty but policy consistency” to investors to attract much-needed foreign direct investment.

RAMAPHOSA’S SON MARRIES IN UGANDA

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s son Andile was introduced by his Ugandan fiancee, Bridget Birungi, at a traditional marriage ceremony known as kuhingira in Uganda on Saturday.

The ceremony attended by high-profile guests was held at the residence of the bride’s uncle, John Patrick Amama Mbabazi, a former prime minister of Uganda in the leafy upscale Kololo suburb in the capital, Kampala.

Mbabazi, who handed over Birungi to the father of the groom, expressed joy that Ramaphosa’s family had met all the set conditions.

“We would like to thank you for being trustworthy, for being dependable because you fulfilled the conditions. So, we are very [...]

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July 31, 2018

STOP THINKING IN A SILO, EMBRACE TECHNOLOGY

Some ‘interesting’ comments have been levelled at Sagarmatha Technologies, post our announcement that we plan to list the company on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Before I unpack what Sagarmatha is and will do, so everyone can be on the same page, let me address the less salubrious remarks that have percolated certain quarters last week.

This is not about a company that is in financial trouble needing to settle a loan. Let’s make that very clear. It’s about a future where eCommerce is driving the digital economy across Africa, supported by the broad reach of a media organisation that has deep penetration through traditional print, has a steadily growing digital audience, a [...]